Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke pointed to Russian hacking of Florida voter registration information as support for his suspicions about the 2016 presidential election.
When asked in an MSNBC interview Saturday if he was confident President Trump had been elected fairly, the former Texas congressman agreed the use of propaganda on voters and electoral system breaches gave him doubts.
“I don’t have complete confidence in part because of what you’ve just shared about Florida, in part because we know from other secretaries of state in other states in the union that their systems were breached. We don’t know if vote tallies were changed, but that alone should be cause for concern,” O’Rourke said.
“When you add to that one of the first phone calls this president made after the Mueller report was released was to Vladimir Putin to whom he described the Mueller report as a hoax, that is a green light, an open invitation, for Russia to continue to involve themselves in our elections. So I’m concerned about what happened in 2016,” he said, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.
O’Rourke said Congress needs protect the nation because Trump has failed his job to defend the United States.
In response to the recent reports about the Russian hackers, former 2018 Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum tweeted: “The Russians know how they hacked our elections. Apparently the FBI has some indication, but the most important people who need to know — the voters of Florida — are left in the dark. That’s not right and it’s no way to ensure our elections are uncorrupted.”
The FBI has said there is no evidence the Russian hackers altered any votes.
O’Rourke, who raised record amounts in his unsuccessful challenge of Sen. Ted Cruz before joining the crowded Democratic presidential primary field, is polling in the single digits.
